GOING BACK HOME – MAY 2024

(Cartoon by Sandy A. Reed, our friend Sandra Read's father.)

Anita and I have decided to move back East. Not right away, but around this time next year, we are planning to move to the North Shore of Long Island, close to our daughter, Deb, who lives in Kings Park. Over the past year and a half, we have had several medical issues, some of which are ongoing. It has been frustrating for two people who have been healthy most of our lives. The doctors and medical staff are competent here in Santa Fe, but the problem is getting appointments. As we get closer to becoming octogenarians, we are among thousands our age. We are all competing for the same physicians. Sometimes, getting an appointment with a specialist and even your primary care physician takes months. Most recently, Anita wanted to see an acupuncturist. She got an appointment, but it won’t be until August.

I know there are shortages of doctors and nurses throughout the country, including here. The problem worsened after the New Mexico legislature's 2023 session raised the medical liability for malpractice from $500,000 to $1 million. This means doctors are forced to pay higher premiums for their malpractice insurance. As a result, the ones of a certain age have retired, and those not of retirement age have chosen to leave the state.

(Deb and Caleb in Photo)

Our daughter says the medical care where she lives is much better, with several highly-rated hospitals in the area. But that isn’t our only motivation for the move. At this time in our lives, we need to be closer to family and the support they can provide. Plus, last summer, there was a new addition to our family. Our grandson David and his wife Mallory had their first child, our great-grandson Caleb, who will celebrate his first birthday in July. He is growing so fast, and we want to be around to watch him grow up. We also have other relatives and friends scattered around the New York/New Jersey area.

We don’t think the transition will be too difficult for us. We’ll have to get used to East Coast winters again and high-humidity summers. I look forward to that humidity because I’ve suffered from eczema in the dry New Mexico air. Speaking of summers, I have missed being near the ocean since leaving Los Angeles. Long Island has plenty of beaches on the North Shore and South Shore. As many of you know, we are foodies; we love everything about the New York food scene. Then, there is also Broadway and off-Broadway—something else we have missed over the 60 years since we left New York.

In 1973, I left New York for San Francisco. Anita followed me to California several months later. We settled in Los Angeles and lived an exciting life for over 20 years. When Anita retired from her executive position at Disney, we moved to the beautiful mountains in Colorado, where we skied, mountain biked, fished, and hiked the trails in and around the historic town of Crested Butte. Over those years, we would visit Santa Fe, New Mexico, another historic town, and we fell in love with the place. So, in our 70s, we realized the cold winters were getting too long for us and our house too big to maintain for two older adults, so we sold it. We found a condo community called Zocalo to rent a newly built condo. We live over an arroyo (like a dried-up riverbed) with beautiful views and the most spectacular sunsets. We will miss Santa Fe and its milder winters, but the East Coast has been experiencing much warmer winters due to climate change, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

A lot can happen in a year; hopefully, with some luck, our move will go smoothly, and once again, we will relocate—this time for our final chapter. We look forward to seeing more of you if you are on the East Coast.

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